Jim Bennett, a member of the United Utah Party, is not burdened with the baggage of this dysfunction.

I was disappointed to read on Friday the 13th that the Salt Lake Tribune had encouraged more dysfunction in Washington by endorsing one more Republican.

I’m not saying they endorsed a bad fellow, but if we send another Republican to Washington as our congressman all we’re doing is throwing another log onto the fire of dysfunction that’s burning there.

The battle lines are well established in Washington and the rules of engagement don’t allow Rs or Ds to reach across the aisle, to do so is political suicide.

Jim Bennett, a member of the United Utah Party, is not burdened with the baggage of this dysfunction. The United Utah Party is organized, not upon one or two ideological flash points, but with the knowledge that we get our best governance when laws are created with the input of competing thoughts and beliefs.

The United Utah Party expects elected officials to work across the aisle, we expect our representatives to respectfully consider opposing points of view, and the United Utah Party will not punish an elected official for negotiating and compromising in order to enact responsible laws. R’s and D’s get their political throats slit if they act in this way and sending one more R from Utah to Washington will only perpetuate the dysfunctional status quo.

The voters of Utah have the unique opportunity to send a message to the rest of America, the message that we can’t expect to achieve different results if we keep doing things the same way over and over. Electing Jim Bennett as our congressman will tell America that Utah values common sense, Utah doesn’t expect one group to have all the right answers, Utah wants elected officials to work together.

Jim Bennett will make an excellent congressman. He is dynamic, he is articulate, he has Washington experience, his Utah roots go deep, he loves Utah and the people who live here, and he loves America. He will represent us well and he won’t get blacklisted by his political party is he talks and works with people who bring different ideas to the table.

Based on comments I read on Friday the 13th, it seems to me that The Tribune thinks the United Utah Party is a real threat to the Republican hegemony in Utah. I think it is, too.

Utah needs a more competitive political landscape to allow elected officials to govern with common sense, not with fear of offending the ideology of one political party. The United Utah Party brings this competition to the state and it’s long past due.